
In 1953 at the University of Chicago, Stanley Miller and Harold Urey placed several gases (methane, ammonia, and hydrogen) into a closed system with heated water and an electrical spark to simulate lightning storms, conditions thought to be present in early Earth’s atmosphere. Within weeks, >10% of carbon in the experiment was found in the form of organic compounds including amino acids, the building block of proteins. Subsequent experiments have shown that nucleotide bases can also be formed in such conditions, such as adenosine, also the key component of ATP. The original experiment continues today at the University of California San Diego, and its findings have guided the field of abiogenesis, an investigation that’s since been extended to include extraterrestrial sources.
Q: Are ancestral gene products enriched for Miller-Urey amino acids?
A: Yes, yes they are
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